Marketing Automation Strategy: What You Need To Know To Get Started

Many companies know that marketing automation is important, and are ready to set aside some budget for it. However, they do not really know how to create a marketing automation strategy that is truly successful.

Putting in place such a strategy may sound daunting, there is no need to panic as, though it is not necessarily easy, it is definitely worth every penny spent on it.

So, let’s have a look and see how to get started.

WHAT IS MARKETING AUTOMATION?

To put it simply, marketing automation is the process of automating marketing-related processes and marketing campaigns across various channels with the help of technology. This allows businesses to target multiple customers via email, text message, social media, web, in an automatic fashion with the help of workflows.

Workflows are either created by the marketing team from scratch, or can be based on pre-existing templates. They can also be adjusted, modified, and reviewed throughout the campaign in order to optimize them to achieve the desired outcome.

WHY YOU NEED A MARKETING AUTOMATION STRATEGY?

Marketing automation can help marketing and sales teams to automate online marketing and sales activities and campaigns in order to achieve better efficiency and ultimately higher revenue. It helps to increase leads, develop and nurture the relationship with prospects and customers, achieve cost-savings and increase Return-On-Investment (ROI).

Furthermore, by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, the risk of human error is reduced, and sales representatives and marketing professionals have more time freed up to focus on higher value-adding tasks.

The bigger the organization becomes in size, and the more complex its business processes become, the more automation will become relevant and necessary.

WHAT PROBLEMS CAN MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLVE?

As an organization grows in size and complexity, automating your marketing effort can become a real game-changer for the marketing and sales teams. Instead of…

• manually sending emails,
• coordinating multiple campaigns in real-time,
• planning on which channel to be used when and tracking the execution,

…a technology can take away this burden and streamline the whole process.

For example, you will no longer need to spend long hours identifying your target audience and designing the right messaging: the tool will do everything automatically. What is more, it can automatically decide on the next best action based on customer behavior: What channel does a given customer use the most? What is the best time of the day to send the message to increase the chance of it being read? Etc.

Therefore, creating a marketing automation strategy can really help save time, reduce errors, increase ROI, drive additional revenue, and promote overall business growth.

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH MARKETING AUTOMATION?

Often times when we think about marketing automation we think about email automation. Although this is correct, email marketing is just one bit of the puzzle. Other types of marketing automation include:

• Website optimization: finding the right way to build your website to see which version delivers the best results. A/B testing could be a great approach for this
• Text messaging: sending promotional messages or Calls-To-Action (CTAs) via SMS. In fact, the Millenials, who will form 50% of the working population by the end of 2020, really love interacting via text messaging
• Social media: using various tools to schedule social media posts, conduct social listening (for e.g., hear what others are saying about your product or service), track keywords, etc.

Nevertheless, email is a great place to start if you are new to marketing automation.

WHY CUSTOMER EMAIL OPT-IN IS IMPORTANT

Emails are at the core of online marketing. This is why when customers give you their permission to receive emails from you, in a way they are agreeing to start a relationship with your brand or with the product or service you provide.

Furthermore, when they agree to receive emails from your company, they are agreeing to share some basic information with you (name, location, etc.). This is the very first opportunity to start collecting invaluable customer data. This information will allow you to start sending personalized content to these customers, and later on collect even more information by asking them to complete missing information, update their profile, etc.

The longer you interact with your customers, the more you will learn about them, what drives them, what their needs and preferences are, what channel they use most often, when they open their email…

Therefore, getting them to consent to share this information with you is extremely valuable. One strategy would be to offer them a free ‘gift’: a special promotion, a discount code, a free PDF, anything that can nurture the relationship with them, and help you gain more insights on who they are. Ultimately, this will allow you to create a truly personalized experience.

THE EMAIL ADDRESS: THE GOLDEN NUGGET

Every marketing automation strategy starts with the email address of your customers and prospects. We all use emails virtually everywhere: when we sign up to a website, do an online purchase, subscribe to a newsletter,… Collecting your customers’ and prospects’ emails, therefore, is key to getting a 360-degree view of your customer.

It is very important, however, to be mindful of how you use these emails. In a way, online marketing is very similar to a real relationship: you can take but you should also give, in order to achieve a true balance. Therefore, in your email campaigns, it is necessary to add value to your subscribers, as well as to respect their preferences, for example when they choose to unsubscribe from your list.

Only by adding true value in your communication with your subscribers by, for instance sharing a valuable piece of content or teaching them a specific skill, will you set your business up for success.

BECOME SMARTER IN YOUR INTERACTION WITH YOUR SUBSCRIBERS

Now that you have collected a significant amount of information in the form of online data, you are ready to use this data to adjust your strategy:

• Preferred channel: You can see what the preferred channel is, and make sure that each subscriber gets the message on that particular channel.
• Preferred time: You can also see when they opened your email, and adjust the time you send your communications accordingly.
• Call-To-Action (CTA): You can easily track the level of interaction of your subscribers and do various tests. For example, you can add videos, buttons, text messages, and then change their place, size, color, etc. You can then compare which one resulted in most clicks.
• Messaging: You can easily see which messages and words resulted in higher open rates and then chose to use only those that resonate most. Furthermore, you can play with different videos, links, and other interactive elements and see where the click-through-rate is higher.

The important thing is, do not let this valuable data stay unused. By smartly utilizing the data you have in your hands, you can achieve better personalization of the messaging, higher email open rates, higher click-through-rates, and ultimately more conversions and therefore increase in revenue.

You can start off, for example, by sending emails to your customers and adjusting them based on the information you have. In time, you will be able to collect new data based on their interaction patterns on your website, with your emails, or with your social media prompts. Use this new data to further customize your messaging.

For instance, if they have recently watched a video on a specific topic that you have shared in one of your emails, make sure you further engage with them by sending them a personalized message with a CTA related to this particular piece of content.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this is why marketing automation is good for your business:

• It liberates more time for your resources to focus on value-adding tasks
• It allows you to draw invaluable insights from the customer data collected
• It helps you deliver personalized content at the right time, on the right channel, with the right messaging, driving customers to act
• It can help increase your ROI and ultimately your bottom line